


Not Easy

by Viridian5



Category: Two Guys a Girl and a Pizza Place
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Drama, Episode Related, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 1999-03-21
Updated: 1999-03-21
Packaged: 2017-10-02 09:41:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Viridian5/pseuds/Viridian5
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pete can't take it anymore.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not Easy

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for "Two Guys, a Girl, and Ashley's Return."
> 
> I hadn't mean this to be AU when I wrote it after seeing "Two Guys, a Girl, and Ashley's Return." I thought it could slip in the cracks of show continuity. Then I saw the opener of "Two Guys, a Girl, and a Fighter." Gah!!!!! The whole episode stunned me with how badly the characters had been written, as if someone who had only the vaguest idea of who they were had taken over the show. Everyone was at least slightly off. Two very big plot developments in particular struck me as completely unbelievable. In any case, this story is more like I think it would happen (if the show admitted that Pete and Berg are together, of course). Though I did wonder how Ashley spent the night with Berg but ended up in one of Pete's shirts...
> 
> My brother had learned how to pick locks with scissors when he was 5, so it can be done.

The sound of the door closing awoke Pete. He groaned a little as his face, which felt three times its normal size around his left eye, throbbed. //Sad that the best thing I can hope for is that I hurt Johnny's hand. Pity punch, I'm sure of it now. I heard him clomping around upstairs, which means they're back together and they'd planned that confrontation.

//I'm not a threat to anyone. I'm wholesome and trustworthy; I'm her "widdle puppy dog." I'm a "wonderful person," which means I'm everyone's doormat.//

Pete gazed blearily at the clock. 4 a.m. //Berg must have scored. Venita didn't strike me as the type, but Berg can be persuasive.// With his face hurting so badly he couldn't go back to sleep, he walked to his bedroom door to listen. You could get a better idea of what had happened from what Berg muttered as he walked in than anything he revealed the morning after.

Berg opened it and turned on the light. "We have to work on those eavesdropping skills, Pete."

Berg had definitely scored. He looked wonderful: dazed, mussed, and flushed, eyes gleaming. He smelled of sex and-- Pete knew that perfume. "Ashley? You slept with Ashley?" Pete yelled.

"How did you--"

"It was the lingering stench of brimstone. What happened to Venita?"

"Ashley broke us up at dinner. What's wrong, Pete? And what happened to your face? Let me take a look at it."

"That's not important right now. You slept with her after she ruined your shot with the person you'd chosen? Don't you have any self-respect?"

Berg looked a little ashamed, but he still tried to deflect. "I thought you were okay with us having an open relationship."

"I would be, except for the people you're 'open' with."

"My others are different. Things are easy-- simple! They're simple with you!"

Pete hadn't thought he could feel worse. He'd been wrong. "No, you're right. I'm easy. I'm always here to give you affection and sex whenever you need them. What the hell was I thinking? No wonder you're running around."

"Pete, it's not like--"

"Would you want me more if I insulted you all the time? Used and abused you? Played 'now I want you, now I don't' like Ashley? How about if I withheld sex most of the time and only put out just when I thought you were starting to drift away? Well, I can't do any of that, Berg. Decent people don't do things like that to the people they love."

"Pete, I need you--"

"Until Ashley buys a dildo. I'm sorry, Berg; I'm not feeling easy tonight." Pete shoved Berg out of the room and locked the door. He turned out the light and wrapped his arms around himself.

Pete knew why he was really so upset. Venita had been a fairly simple case of attraction. Ashley was dark, twisted need, an obsession so tangled and complex that Berg probably didn't understand his own hunger for her.

That kind of fixation ate your soul and left no room for the other people in your life.

"Pete, open the door!" Berg said. "C'mon." Berg pounded on the door, then said, "It's not like that! Do you know how much crazier I'd be without you? I'll never stop needing you."

Pete went back to bed and put the pillow over his head. It muffled the banging at the door and Berg's pleas. When the noises eventually stopped, he didn't know if it made him happy or sad. He was too busy trying not to think, to just let himself go numb.

He still couldn't sleep.

He fought back tears. Crying would hurt like hell, his face was swollen enough, and he didn't need his left eyelid to swell shut completely.

And he had _some_ pride.

He heard a sudden rattling at the door. Finally, Berg pushed it open. "I picked the lock with scissors," Berg said.

"Get the hell out of here!"

Berg climbed into bed besides him, pulled the covers over them, and spooned against him. It reminded him of childhood and hiding under the covers to escape the Bad Things. Berg had showered, washing off all physical traces of Ashley until he only smelled like soap and heat. The damp warmth radiating from him seeped into Pete's body. When Pete tried to move away, he held on tightly.

"I never meant to hurt you, Pete."

No matter how much Pete wanted to melt, he couldn't. Not with Ashley involved. "Yeah, fine, now get out of my bed."

"I just-- I don't know why I do these things. I love Ashley as much as I hate her, and I don't know how to stop. I know it's sick."

"Yeah." Near as Pete could tell, Berg was only wearing a towel around his waist. He forced that thought away.

Berg rubbed warm, comforting circles on Pete's shoulder. "Talk to me, Pete? I always get scared when you don't want to talk."

//Maybe that would be a good thing.// But wholesome, trustworthy Pete couldn't continue to do things that scared people; it was just too far from his nature. //I am a puppy and a damned well trained one. When I hear that plaintive tone in his voice, I just roll over and expose my belly in surrender.//

As hard as Pete tried to hold them back, the words flowed out anyway; they needed to be said. "She hurts you, and you seem to want her for that. You're obsessed with her, while I think she's only playing with you. I can only see this getting worse."

Berg snuggled in closer. "So, you're worried about me?"

Reward. Warmth, comfort, and that happy, caressing tone. //_Good_ puppy.//

"Of course I am, Berg." //I love you, God help me.//

"I can't-- can't break it off with Ashley. For one thing, I don't think she'd let me... But that's no excuse." Berg kissed Pete's neck. "But I'll never stop needing or wanting you. Maybe-- maybe you can even help me get free."

"Sure, Berg." //And everything will be just fine if we lie to ourselves well enough.//

### End


End file.
